Professional Documents
Culture Documents
CONTAMINANTS
Air is approximately 78 percent nitrogen, 21 percent oxygen, and 1 percent other gasses, including carbon
dioxide, rare gasses, and airborne
chemicals in molecular mix or suspension. Indoor contaminants or pollutants fall into one of three categories:
Category I; Contaminants generated
within the spaceThese contaminants
generally have an identifiable source
within the space. Examples would be
carbon dioxide, biological odors and
artificial aromas from the occupants;
environmental tobacco smoke (ETS);
volatile organic compounds from
binders and adhesives; solvents and
cleaners; chemicals from processes or
storage; and cooking and food odors.
Category II; Environmental contaminants introduced into the spaceWith
these contaminants, one must identify
first the type of contaminant and second its path into the space. The types
would include such environmental
pollutants as carbon monoxide, sulfur
dioxide, industrial chemicals, solvents,
and hosts of various types of particulate
matter. The three most common paths
into the space are 1) through purposeful envelope openings such as windows
and doors, 2) through non-purposeful
openings such as envelope leakage, and
3) through the outdoor air intake of
ventilating systems.
o provide good indoor air quality is the fundamental objective of every HVAC system.
The definition for indoor air
quality that will be used in this article is
that good indoor air quality is the maintaining of the air in the space within the
range of thermal characteristics and
within the limits of concentration of
chemical or organic contaminants necessary for human comfort and safety.
THERMAL CHARACTERISTICS
Thermal characteristics are those
features of the space and air in the
space that allows for the controlled
rate of heat rejection from the human
body, which is necessary for comfort
and personal performance. The thermal characteristics include:
Dry bulb temperature
Relative humidity
Ambient air motion
Freedom from drafts
Temperature homogeneity (air
mixing)
Radiant surface temperatures
Amongst other things, these characteristics are seen to be intrinsically related to the control of temperature and
humidity, the method of introducing
supply air into the space (the air distri*William J. Coad, PE, is a member of HPAC
Engineerings Editorial Advisory Board.
HPAC
ENGINEERING
49
may have been a perfectly valid concept with the simpler systems of 50 years
ago. However, in light of the complexity
of todays systems, the concept is not
technically sound. Todays buildings require multiple zoning, operating cycle
turndown ratios varying from 100 percent of full load to zero on cooling and
then from zero to 100 percent of fullheating load. The same system, in many
cases, has to function at one time of the
year in a hot humid climate and at another time of year in a very cold climate.
If one analyzes the psychrometric control requirements under all of these varying conditions, it can be concluded that
the very concept of the mixing chamber
under these requirements is flawed. Furthermore, our continued reliance on this
technology is a major cause of microbial
* For purposes of this article, the following
definitions apply:
1) Ventilation air is air from the outdoors that
is introduced to the space within a building for
the purpose of diluting the contaminants to an
acceptable level.
2) A humid climate is one in which the outdoor
vapor pressure can be expected to exceed the
design indoor vapor pressure for any appreciable time of the year.
(Phase III) contamination in air conditioning systems and, indeed, in air conditioned buildings. In many cases, lack
of thermal comfort has simply been accepted as a limitation of air conditioning
technology. And, these failures are certainly not a result of not spending
enough money. The cost of the complexity introduced for the purpose of trying to make the mixing chamber concept work is overwhelming, particularly
when compared to the lack of success of
those efforts.
The question might then be asked, if
the ventilation air is not introduced into
the mixing chamber, where and how
could it be successfully introduced?
THE ALTERNATIVE
Assume that a building to be air conditioned is located where the weather
varies from hot and humid in the summer months (say, 95 F DB/78 F WB) to
cold and dry in the winter months (say,
0 F), such as in the upper Midwest or
eastern seaboard. Further assume that
this is to be a tight building (very low
infiltration), that the ventilation is to
be independent from the control of any
aspects of the space temperature, and
that any and all dehumidification will
HPAC
ENGINEERING
HPAC
ENGINEERING
Direct digital
control
VSD
Supply air
fan
Return
air
SM
VAV
Supply
air
Cooling coil
Drain pan
Filter
FIGURE 1. Space temperature control (STC) unit.
Direct digital
control
Louver
Fr
Fr
SM
Supply
air fan
Outside
air
Damper
Filter
IFB coil
T
Supply
air
Direct digital
control
Louver
Fr
Fr
SM
Supply
air fan
Outside
air
Damper
Filter
IFB coil
T
Supply
air
HPAC
ENGINEERING
ALTERNATIVE
CONFIGURATIONS
OF THE VAC UNIT
In climates where the winter outdoor
temperature is significantly below freezing, many designers feel more comfortable using an integrated face and bypass
heating coil. Although, when hot water
is used for heating, a pumped heating
coil with varying water temperature is
quite acceptable with a properly circuited coil.
Where direct expansion refrigeration
is used in lieu of chilled water, constant
dew point temperature can be achieved
by various methods of controlling the
system back pressure or false loading
with hot gas bypass. However, if only an
upper limit on relative humidity is the
concern (environmental comfort), staging compressors or compressor-capacity
control has proven effective.
Furthermore, the VAC units are perfect applications for a host of energy
conservation cycles such as reheat/precool run-around coils, ventilation intake/exhaust heat recovery, etc. They
are also well adapted to the various techniques of desiccant cooling and evaporative cooling in either simple or compound cycles.
The concept being presented is not
new or revolutionary. It was born in
those HVAC applications in which
close-tolerance temperature and humidity control was a fundamental design parameter. And, the solution provided by
this concept is elegant. If the application
COST OF INSTALLATION
The immediate reaction of most
HVAC practitioners (be they contractors, engineers, or owner/facility managers) is that the use of two units or systems (the STC and VAC systems)
must be more expensive than a single
system to serve both functions. This is
not the case.
From a logic perspective, if the VAC
system is design properly, the recirculating STC unit operates dry, providing
sensible cooling only. Thus, at this unit,
there should be no danger and thus no
concern for creating an environment
that encourages microbial growth. This
then becomes a simple, inexpensive air
handling unit with no problems of
freeze protection or damper interlocks.
Furthermore, if the VAC unit discharge
air is ducted directly to the space, the
STC unit is smaller by the amount of air
provided by the VAC unit. Also, the
STC unit has a much lower pressure
drop than a more conventional unit
because it doesnt require pressure losses
through the mixing dampers, preheat
coil, eliminators, wet cooling coils, and
filters designed to remove atmospheric
impurities. Being able to reset the sup-
Mixing Chamber
tablish the outdoor air/return air percentage mix in the mixing chamber.
In warm humid climates where the
outdoor-specific humidity exceeds the indoor-specific humidity, the mixing chamber will humidify the recirculating air.
When the above occurs in a unit with
on-off control or bypass control, the system will humidify the space.
In cold climates, if the indoor space is
humidified, destructive condensation can
occur in the mixing chamber as the mixed
air drops below the dew point temperature of the indoor air.
If the outdoor specific humidity exceeds the indoor specific humidity, all of
the air (ventilation and recirculated) must
be cooled below the design dew point
temperature to maintain space humidity
control.
If there are chemical pollutants in the
outdoor air requiring chemical filtration,
the chemical filter must be sized to filter all
of the air (ventilation and recirculated)
since it is normally installed downstream
of the mixing point.
In cold climates, steam or water coils
in an air handling unit can be subjected to
below freezing temperatures and must be
protected from freezing and rupturing.
This protection often results in less reliable performance of the unit whether from
actual safety shutoffs that protect the unit
or nuisance shutdowns because of
anomalies of the system. (When the air
handling unit is used to heat the space, a
freeze-protection shutdown turns off the
space heating system.)
HPAC
ENGINEERING
55
ply air temperature upward under partload conditions without reheat, in many
cases, will provide effective part-load
control without terminal reheat, fanpowered terminals, or other costly, complex, and potentially troublesome terminal device schemes.
Experience in applying this concept
56
HPAC
ENGINEERING